Achievement Details

A True Knight789 (100)

Clear Arcade Mode

Achievement Guide for A True Knight

Achievement won on 07 Feb 13TA Score for this game: 1,766
Posted on 12 February 13 at 15:27, Edited on 30 August 15 at 05:34

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Right then, so to be beat Arcade Mode you must finish all 5 stages from story mode in one sitting. If you use all of your continues, you’ll get a game over and have to start back from the first stage. Arcade Mode is a step up from the Hard difficulty, meaning there’s more enemies and they take more hits to kill, while dealing more damage themselves.Also, upon completing a stage you only regain 2 health squares as opposed to full health in story mode.

Currency in this mode is also very limited, so you’re going to want to kill almost every enemy you encounter (I say almost, because don't risk dying over an enemy), while also opening all the microwaves you come across. By the time I reached the final boss, I had upgraded my HP three times, fully upgraded Hellebore, bought one extra life (I’ll refer to them as 1up’s from now on), and once facing the point of no return could still buy a piece of armor and restore my health for the final fight.

Also, before attempting this mode I strongly recommend that you complete the following achievement, it'll better prepare yourself for what Arcade mode has to offer:

What you should spend your hearts on (This may come down to preference):

First off, I should mention that items/ ugrades are expensive, very expensive in this mode. Increasing your health a fourth time for example, costs 300 hearts. So you’ll have to make sure you can play through the stages without having to always (You can do it 2 or 3 times I’d say) go to the stores to restore your health, you’ll need your hearts for upgrades.

Stage 1: First off, upgrade your HP once. There is no real reason for doing that so early on, but you’re going to have to increase it at least 3 times by the time you reach the boss of stage 3, so this is a good place to start.

Stage 2: Upgrade Black Hellebore once, this is to make the fight against Wolfsbane go by faster without using all of your magic. And once you reach the store before the boss, increase your HP once more.

Stage 3: On this stage all you’re going to buy is another HP increase, reason being that you’ll only have enough money to buy one of the main upgrades, and trust me, for the boss you’ll need the HP.

Stage 5: And finally, on this stage you’ll want to get enough hearts to increase Hellebore one last time, buy a 1up (If needed) and make sure you have some spare hearts for the final fight. Increasing Hellebore is very important, it makes the third phase of the final boss tremendously easier.

The above is only for those who’s going for the actual arcade clear. If you’re still working on passing certain stages I recommend buying 1ups to help you make it further into the game. Once you make it to the final part of stage 3 you’ll probably think: ‘What the f**k is this!!!’, so from this point on start upgrading your HP ONLY, that way you’ll have more health on this part and you’ll be able to practice it for longer.

The Timer:

Don’t worry, if the timer runs out, the only thing you lose is the score bonus at the end of the stage. You do NOT die or fail the game in any way if the timer runs out. You can spend as much time as you want on each stage.

The Bosses:

Stage 1 Boss:As you probably know this isn’t really a ‘Boss’, as he ends up as a regular enemy later in the game. He is however extremely simple to kill with the following technique: Holding charges your sword, if you crouch while releasing you’ll be able to evade immediately after, as opposed to the short delay in movement which occurs when you perform it standing up. So simply approach the boss, perform the above, then hit to evade as SOON as your blade hits the boss. Simply repeat this until he’s dead.

Stage 2 Boss:Here you should have Hellebore upgraded at least once. Also, do not use your magic attack (, not ) more than 2 times. You should reach the fight against the chicken on stage 3 with at least 1 magic attack left (Preferably 2). Anyway, once the fight starts, run up to the boss and start firing Hellebore at his face (). He will now start moving towards you, so just back away slightly while still firing Hellebore at him. Eventually, HE will start to back away (I made a mental note of this, whenever you’re backed up to the two trees standing next to each other, he will start to back off). Here you’ll hit his face with charged attacks, just make sure you’re not too close when you hit him, cause he will try to bite you, but since he is backing away he will miss if you’re hitting him from the right distance. You should also notice that he kind of sways his head up and down as he moves backwards, you need to time your charged attacks so that you hit him as his head is down, otherwise you will miss. This is basically what you’ll keep doing till he’s dead.

And I can't stress this enough, you need to be aggressive. Keep firing Hellebore at his face whenever he's coming towards you and get as many charged hits on him as you can when he moves back. The idea here is to kill him before he's able to damage you by moving across the entire screen. Don't panic when he swaps sides on the screen though, alot of the time it was during that phase I ended up killing him.

He will also spawn wolves, and the first one will always show up once the boss himself has backed all the way away from you once. This is where you’ll use your magic, but make sure you get BOTH the boss and the wolf within range before you use it.

Stage 3 Boss:Fighting the chicken (Fun fact, his name is Doodle) can be pretty annoying, but it’s not too difficult. If you’ve got magic attacks left you’ll want to use this after Doodle performs his raining fire attack. He will back up, start spitting fire up in the air and once he comes back, quickly hit him with a charged attack followed by using your magic attack immediately after. This is basically the only attack which is difficult to dodge.The one where he fires 3 consecutive fire balls at you, you just run back and they become very easy to evade from here.And the long fire ‘beam’ you simply just jump over or duck to evade, you’re given plenty of time to prepare for it.It’s also important to note that you’ll want to use ONLY charged attacks on him, so always keep your sword charged, poking him with your sword is a waste of time.

The fight after, however, is the hardest part in the game and there’s unfortunately no advice one could give to make it ‘easy’, as the bullets from the enemies aren’t following a set pattern. What worked for me though, was to strafe up and down the screen, cause since the enemie’s bullets follow you, they’ll almost always fly above or below you seeing as you keep going up and down. And also, make sure you continuously tap isntead of holding it down, you will fire at a much faster rate this way. If you happen to have a turbo controller you will fire twice as fast, if not faster.The boss is much easier than the fight leading up to him though, because there actually is a pattern to all of his attacks. So you’ve just got to find/learn where to go to avoid his attacks and he shouldn’t be a very big problem.

EDIT:I've added a video below of the flying section with Doodle in Arcade Mode, hopefully it'll give you an idea of how to tackle it. I take no credit for the video, all goes toSSDM:

Stage 4 Boss:Not too much to say here other than to ALWAYS go for her gas mask first, it takes two charged attacks to destroy it (If you hit all three pods) and with that gone, her physical attacks are all easy to predict/ evade.

Her second phase can be a bit of a pain however, as the amount of flying heads coming at you is ridiculous. It’s usually a good thing to have 1 or 2 magic attacks here, other than that just take your time, find openings where you can strike the boss (Charged attack) and do your best to dodge/ kill the heads coming your way.You could also just stay at a safe distance and fire Hellebore at the boss, this will take quite a few hits though especially since you'll very often hit the flying heads instead of the boss, but it's an option nontheless.

Stage 5 Boss:As you all probably know, stage 5 has you fighting every boss from the previous stages again, however, most of them are much easier seeing as they have less health and you don’t have to go through all of their phases again. One exception is the walnut boss (Doodle fight), his attack patterns are all the same here, but you have less room to move around in and you take twice as much damage from his attacks. This is just something you’ll have to perfect through practice, there really isn’t anything I can say to help here, sorry.I guess the only piece of advice I can give is to NOT look at the boss. Always look at his bullets and try to find the opening as quickly as you can.

And lastly, the final boss. I’ll leave a video below for this fight as it explains more than I can. Credit for the video goes to challenger428:

Just know that the Princess isn’t the final boss, you also have to fight the white knight at the end. However, he is a complete joke IF you can reach him with at least one continue left. If you can beat the princess you get a checkpoint, and here you’ll most likely die if you’ve used all of your magic attacks because the knight is extremely hard to kill using standard attacks only, but once you respawn you’ll have max health, meaning you can shoot projectiles. These make a complete fool out of him seeing as it interrupts everything he does. And if he comes close, just use magic attacks, simple as that.

1up Locations:

This speaks for itself, but you should ALWAYS pick up the 1up’s found on stages 1-4. The one on stage 5 has been removed and replaced by a max health skull. Here are their locations:

Stage 1:Once you cross the bridge with the flower enemy at the end of it, you’ll get to three boxes. Jump on top of them and then jump up on top of the building to your left. From there, jump up on the clouds and you’ll find the door leading to the 1up.

Stage 2:Very easy to find, just enter the door you cross roughly 1/3 through the level and proceed to the end.

Stage 3:Hardest one to reach. Once you meet the enemies hanging from the ceiling there will be a door in the top left of this area. Entering this door you’ll see a lot of flying heads in front of you. The idea here is to jump from head to head using your sword (Jump, press then ) until you reach the other side. What makes it tough is that you only get one shot at it, as the door locks behind you when you first enter it. I had a little trouble getting past it in the beginning, so you can load up Mission 1 of Challenge Mode if you want to practice jumping from head to head. It becomes super easy in the end.

Stage 4:As soon as the stage starts just jump over the tree behind you, simple as that.

General Tips:

Crushers on Stage 3:-Just before you reach the elevator leading to the Doodle fight, you'll have to pass through a platforming section with crushers, these are very easy to get past on the lower difficulties, but in Arcade Mode, the last set of crushers smash down incredibly fast.You would think you're just supposed mash the button to evade, right? Well don't, that'll get you killed almost every time. What you need to do, is to perform ONE evade, wait for the roll animation to finish, then IMMEDIATELY perform the next one.It sounds weird, but you'll evade at a much faster rate this way.If you're still having trouble performing the roll properly, I've added a detailed explanation of how to perform it below:

Perfect Rolls:Now, the reason you don't want to mash while rolling, is because it throws the game off. It makes Black Knight sort of lag at the end of his roll, making him not move for a very brief period. While this only costs you milliseconds, it costs you milliseconds for every roll you make, which at this specific section, is time you can't afford to waste.So, to perform a Perfect Roll, you will have to time your presses, so that you start your next roll as -soon- as the animation allows you.More specifically, do not press at all, until you've learned the precise timing of when the roll animation ends. You can easily work on this at the beginning of any stage.Once you've gotten the technique down properly, you'll notice that he starts each roll much faster compared to constantly tapping . This is vital if you want to get past this section consistently.

Sword Charge:- Keep your sword charged at all times! This may feel a bit awkward in the beginning, but it's a one-hit kill on all the smaller enemies, even in Arcade Mode. The only time I ever spammed was against the stationary knights who thrusts their spear back and forth. The reason I did that is because when you crouch in front of them, and perform a charge attack, you will move slightly forward, and I often bumped into the knight and took damage that way, so I just decided to not do that again.

Pre-Emptive Strikes:-There's a very simple way of dealing with the Wheelchair enemies (Not sure what they're actually called). First though, you'll need to know where you'll meet each of them. Once you do, slowly approach the area where he is waiting, and make sure you can only see the spikes on the front of his shield (Even just the Shadow is enough), he will NOT spot you until roughly half of his body is on screen.Now, simply perform the 'Slash Attack' (Twirl the left stick , then press ), this will kill him in one hit.

The above is actually a pretty good 'technique' to use in certain sections of the game. An example is the beginning of stage 2, where there will be a wolf fight almost immediately after the stage starts. Simply approach the screen carefully, and you'll see the first wolf sitting with his back turned, use the 'Slash Attack', and you'll kill him off right away, without having to take them all on. Just remember that using this move costs hearts, so don't go crazy with it.

Health Skulls:-Whenever you come across a microwave with a max health skull, while your HP is 75%, or even 50% full, proceed a bit further ahead first before picking it up. That way, it doesn't really matter if you mess up and take damage, as you'll go back and pick up that skull anyway, which is better than picking it up right away, and then take unecessary damage. Just make sure you go back and pick it up before you pass a point where you won't be able to return to it.

An example, is underground in stage 2. You'll get to a point where you'll have to lower a bridge in order to proceed. Directly below this bridge, is a microwave with a Max HP skull in it. Instead of opening it right away, cross the bridge, and fight that stupid hawk enemy at the end of this hallway first. These guys are a big pain, as the bullets they fire at you is very hard to dodge. So just kill him with charged attacks (You can also approach the screen slowly, and have a cheap shot at him with the Slash attack, it won't kill him, but it deals a lot of damage), and run back afterwards, shoot Hellebore through the bridge to open the microwave, and collect the skull.

I-Frames:Whenever you perform an Evade, there will be a very short period where you'll be invulnerable. In other words, if there's an enemy in front of you, you can dodge (Crouch, face -away- from the enemy, and press ) directly past him, and not get hit.You will have to experiment a little yourself, to learn how to put this to good use, as the timing is a bit off when you first try, but it's a very valuable trick to use against the heads that spawn during the fight with Spider Lily on stage 4.Although I did use this myself, I completely forgot to add it to the guide, and would never have done so hadn't https://www.trueachievements.com/RazorPriest.htm brought it up, so thanks to him.

ConclusionAnd that’s it. I actually have alot more I could say, but I've put in the most important parts, if there is anything at all you're curious about, do not hesitate to ask, I will gladly help in any way I can.

All in all, I found this achievement very difficult starting off, getting to the end of stage 5, takes approximately 2 hours, seeing as you have to kill so many enemies, so you can imagine how demoralising it is to die on the final boss. However, the game becomes progressively easier as you play it, you'll find yourself breezing through the majority of it after memorizing the stages. If I can do it, I believe any dedicated person can as well. So good luck to everyone attempting this, it’s absolutely possible with enough practice!

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